


Family Tradition.

by JeckParadox



Series: The Mundane Lives of Gods [2]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Babies, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-14 23:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4584825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeckParadox/pseuds/JeckParadox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Piccolo has trained every child born to the Son Family. It's only right that he does so for the newest member, and with the threats against the Earth only growing in magnitude with each decade, it's only right to do so right away.<br/>Unfortunately, Videl and Gohan have this silly idea about the value of 'a normal childhood'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Tradition.

"Piccolo, please put Pan down."

"What?" He hugged the baby a little closer. "I'm just going to be a few months. I'll bring her back every few weeks."

"No!" Videl shouted angrily. "She's just a baby, she's staying right here, and she's going to be sleeping in doors, and eating baby food."

Piccolo raised a hairless eyebrow. "Anything is baby food if you mash it enough."

" _Piccolo_." Videl threatened.

Gohan interposed himself between the two before Videl tried to attack the Namek. "Come on, guys, we can work this out-"

"He is not taking my baby to live in the desert."

"...Fine, I'm willing to compromise. I know a remote jungle island-"

"NO."

"She'll do fine there. Maybe it'll even bring out her tail." Piccolo said, smiling at the baby, who smiled back and tried to grab his finger. Videl guided her soft hand away from the decidedly sharp claws on the ends of Piccolo's digits.

"I don't want our baby to have a tail!" She said, holding onto the baby's hand protectively. "She's three quarters human, that should be enough!"

"Guys, okay... Piccolo, you can train Pan-"

"Gohan!" Videl protested. 

"-but, but, dear, only after she's old enough to walk, talk, and think on her own. Understood?"

"...If she was living in the jungle she would learn to walk much quicker."

"Piccolo, please, I'm trying to find a compromise. You're one of the most important people in my life, and I'm absolutely grateful that you trained me all those years ago, and for watching out for me and my little brother ever since." He sighed. "But this isn't about the sake of the Earth. Right now, we don't need Pan to be a fighter."

The Namek rolled his eyes and gave an audible  _hmph_. "We will need her if you keep on slacking in your training."

"We don't need me either! We have my dad-"

"Who's never around."

"-and Vegeta-"

"Who's about as trustworthy as Trunks could throw him."

"-and Android 18, Krillin, Tien, and for that matter,  _you_." the half Saiyan shook his head. "We're safe, right now. Pan can afford to grow up normally. You'll get your chance to train her, and you're always welcome to our home... but let her grow up a bit? I had at least until I was four. Goten had until he was seven."

"But imagine how powerful she could become if we started right away! She could outshine Goku and Vegeta by miles! Ascend to godhood, surpass them beyond their dreams!"

"Piccolo, what if we just want her to grow up and be a little girl, like any other girl on Earth, except with the weirdest family on Earth?" Videl asked. "Is that so terrible? Pan doesn't need to surpass Goku and Vegeta, or anyone, if she doesn't want to."

Gohan nodded, smiling at his wife. "Let Pan grow up to decide what  _she_  wants to do."

Piccolo was silent for a time, looking at the happy baby in his arms. Reluctantly, he handed her off to Videl, and without another word he flew off in a burst of white light that prompted Pan to start giggling. 

"...Do you think we hurt his feelings?" Gohan asked nervously. 

"He'll recover." Videl said, still slightly irritated. "Honestly, wanting to throw a baby into the middle of a jungle to fend for herself, literally before she is capable of fending for herself, and then training her in martial arts as soon as  she can walk? What would that do a child?"

"...It's how he feels he's part of the family, Videl. He feels that the best gift he can give to Pan is his training. It's how he shows how much he loves her, how much he loves us."

"Loves you, you mean. He thinks he's your father."

Gohan smiled, "Heh... he kind of is, you know. Goku... I love him, but Piccolo's right, he never really was around much- I mean, not that I blame him! He was dead, or recovering from serious injuries, or training to protect the world for most of my childhood. Mom and Mister Piccolo were always around for me, always were looking out for me and teaching me." He reached an arm around and pulled Videl and Pan close to his body. "And don't you think he doesn't love you too. He's just bad at showing it. Believe you me, if he didn't like you, we'd all know it." he rubbed the head of his child, fluffing her hair between his fingers. It was fluffy, not nearly stiff and wire-like as his, Vegeta's, or his father's hair. It was decidedly human-like hair, if a little more stiff than her mother's. Pan was mostly human, and harmless. But already, she held inside her the power, even as a fetus, to help bestow godhood onto another.

Pan had saved the world before she was even born yet. She could afford to wait a few years, have a childhood, before she was sent out to fight.

"Don't worry, Piccolo will come back soon enough. Even if he can't train her his way, he won't let Pan be without her favorite Green Grunkle."

* * *

 

**_Dear Gohan and Videl._ **

**_I have taken Pan, she will be safe. She has the strength to survive all this planet could throw at her and more, but it'll have to do. I will be there to watch over her and care for her, if she needs the help. I will bring her back for Christmas, before resuming her training in earnest._ **

**_Signed,_ 魔 Jr. **

* * *

 

"Oh my God."

"Damn it Piccolo!"

"Oh my God." Videl repeated. "I'm going to rip his arm off."

"Videl-"

"Nope. I'm going to rip his arm off. He's going to grow it back, and then I'll do it again. And then we're taking Pan back home, and he's not allowed to see her for at least two years."

"We're having Christmas at our house this year, everyone's going to be there, he already has the invitation."

"He's not allowed to see her until Christmas." She amended. "And then, not for at least a year after that. This has to have consequences."

Gohan nodded, but more hesitant. "I think I can sense him, he's not too far away."

Videl narrowed her eyes, feeling in the distance where Gohan was pointing, and lit up her own ki, firing across the sky after Piccolo and her baby.

* * *

 

"I'm not apologizing."

Piccolo stared at his arm, as well as the splash of purple on the ground, next to his arm. Which was on the ground. He sighed. "Alright. I deserved that. But honestly, look at her, she's having the time of her life."

Videl glared at him, before sliding her eyes back to her baby, who was happily crunching a large colorful beetle inside her toothless mouth. Already, she was covered in mud and bits of leaves.

"...Grow it back, I'm taking another one."

"I'm not going to let you." Piccolo warned, grunting as he regenerated. Videl dove for his shoulder, but he caught her hand before it could rip off his arm again. "Now, I understand you're upset, but this is what's best for Pan. Let's face it. We all know that something is going to show up, and be stronger than both Goku and Vegeta, and put the whole universe at stake. It's going to happen, it's only a matter of time. We don't know what it will be, but it has to happen eventually. And when it does-" he pointed toward the baby. "I want her to be ready. If everything goes as I plan, Pan, at the very least, will never have to be brought back with the Dragon Balls."

With that, Videl was silent for a bit.  Piccolo stared at her, and for a few seconds the only noise was Pan playing with the bugs in the mud. Then, with a bright light, a slightly tired-looking Gohan appeared. "Hey, I see-" he stared at the arm on the ground. "Oh my God, Piccolo I am so sorry, but-"

"Don't worry, we're over that already." Piccolo said, waving it off, as if to make a point, with his newly-regenerated limb. "...What took you so long?"

"Well, I mean, I haven't really been training for the past couple of years-"

"Right, right." Piccolo said, his mouth turned in a sneer. "After Buu, and then, of all things, the God of Destruction, why would you train  _harder_ , when the  _sensible_  thing to do in the face of new threats is to  _stop_."

Gohan blinked. "Piccolo, I never knew you to be one for sarcasm."

The Namek sighed. "As I've been explaining to Videl; Earth is a magnet for trouble, and so is the Son family. Pan needs to be strong enough to handle whatever comes next after Beerus. For all we know, it could escalate even farther. There could be things beyond the Hakaishin. And if there are, we both know they'll be coming for Goku, or Vegeta, or the Dragon Balls, or Earth or- well, they'll be a problem. And by the time that happens, Videl will be old enough to fight by our sides, if she's ready. She has the potential to be stronger than Goku or Vegeta, stronger than you. I know it. We just need to work on unlocking it."

"Piccolo, I'm afraid I have to put my foot down on this. Whatever comes, we'll be ready. We'll deal with it, like we always have-"

"No." Videl said, frowning. "...Piccolo's right."

"Wha- Wait, what?!" Gohan asked, shocked. 

The woman turned toward the Namek and frowned. "...But we'll be here too. All of us, training together... but not for entire years, not nonstop. We need time to rest, time to relax, time to do things as a family, normal,  _human_  things." She announced, definitively. "...But I suppose she's a quarter alien... and that means she'll have to fight monsters and save the world, or get left behind like Gohan."

"...All three of you, training?"

"Why not?"

"...Gohan has been slacking off." Piccolo said, mostly to himself.

Videl nodded. "I'm proud that he became a professor, but all the same, we haven't sparred since we first got married! I mean, I'm beginning to wonder if you could even beat me!"

"I don't  _want_  to beat you-"

She smirked evilly at Piccolo, before turning back to her husband with a false glare. "Oh, so you've been intentionally skimping so that you can  _let_  me win?"

"No! I just don't want to-"

Piccolo grinned, looking down at Pan, who had moved on from the bugs to Piccolo's arm. At least she wasn't trying to eat it, at the very least. He had it on... unfortunately, a reliable source, namely Yajirobe, that Namekians were delicious. Grinning, he picked her up, incinerating his discarded arm soon after. Her parents still 'arguing'. "Don't you worry Pan, I'll make you into the greatest fighter this world has ever seen." He whispered, and the girl pressed her hands against his face. He grinned a razor-sharp smile.

She grinned back. 


End file.
